My family and I recently moved across the country. Selling a house and buying a new one is hard enough, but doing if from several states away is something that made me question my sanity more than once. Through the ups and downs of the experience, I learned a few things—things that you should never, ever do when selling a house.
6. Taking stuff you shouldn’t
If your real estate agent hasn’t already informed you, you are not allowed to rip fixtures off the walls and take them with you. If it is screwed into the wall, it stays, unless you specifically agreed in writing with your buyer that the item was not included. Imagine our surprise when we were informed by our long-suffering real estate agent (while we were sitting at the closing table, no less) that our sellers had actually removed what we thought were built-in closets in the master bath, leaving us closetless.
Not only that, but other things that were screwed to the wall had been unceremoniously pried off and absconded with, with no attempt to fix the damage left behind. This can land you in legal trouble, and no one needs that. We were able to get some of the things back and so avoided having to go to court, but no one wants to be 1000 miles away from home and technically living out of their car (with a giant dog and everything they own in a truck), only to find out they’ve been ripped off. That’s not nice. Don’t be that guy.
5. Not cleaning up
Keeping your house clean and in showing condition is key, but it’s equally important after selling, too. Broom clean means broom clean. If you take a broom and sweep it across the floor and stuff piles up in front of the broom, the house is NOT broom clean. No one expects you to scrub baseboards, but for God’s sake, and the sake of your new owners, please sweep the floor. It’s not that time-consuming and it says “we care.”
If your new owners walk in, like we did, to your dog hair and loose screws littering the property, you should be ashamed that you couldn’t bother to run the vacuum for ten minutes before scooting out the door (with a freaking closet in tow).
4. Not putting away personal items
This is something all real estate agent should tell people, but some don’t. Take all personal items, like photographs, down, and pack them away. A buyer wants to see themselves in the house, not you. As lovely as you are, it’s easier for a prospective buyer to see a blank space that is uncluttered by personal things. Declutter as much as possible.
You could hire a stager for a lot of money or you could Google it and do it yourself, but spend some time reading what the experts have to say about staging and take their advice. Staging a home to sell it has been proven to be psychologically effective on buyers. (It totally worked on me…and then they ripped stuff off the walls that I loved after I bought it, but at least they had the good sense to stage it properly.)
3. Do not hide flaws and material defects
The truth will come out. There is no way that your new buyer isn’t going to notice that your tub leaks all over the floor (like what happened the first time I took a bath in my new house) or that the shower doesn’t drain (yep, me again) and these things can land you in court faster than you can say “I should have called a plumber.”
When you are told to disclose problems with your home, you do it. And be honest about it, because you never know who is coming to take over your problems and whether they will be the forgiving type. You could really get in trouble and get someone like me who will haunt you ’till the end of time over your leaky tub (and the closet you ripped off the wall). Who needs the aggravation?
2. Failing to live up to your contractual obligations
Selling a home requires good-faith negotiation with your buyer. If you agreed after inspections to fix something like a leaky toilet, you need to fix it. You don’t want your buyers to take ownership of the house and the first thing they hear is the sound of a running toilet that was supposed to be fixed. (Yes, us again.)
It is unconscionable to do this. You will be in breach of contract, which is a slam dunk in court and you will get hit by the karma train at some point in the near future and no one will feel sorry for you (because you’re the shady folks who imitated the Grinch while ripping every last thing off the walls you could). Honesty is the best policy.
1. Failing to use a real estate agent
I know you have heard that story of that guy you know who sold by owner and everything was fine. If you’re serious about selling, get a professional. People who sell by owner are like people who represent themselves in court. They haven’t been to law school, but hey…why not? I looked at a house for sale by owner and would have offered on it that day except that I could tell the sellers had no real plan, weren’t serious about selling, and were determined not to pay a commission.
I believe in paying a professional for good service and if you don’t, well…good luck selling your house.As a seller and a buyer I want my interests protected by a licensed real estate agent who is my advocate, who is knowledgable about the laws of the area and the minutiae that I don’t have time to research (and believe me there is a lot of minutiae like what is a fixture and can it be dragged off the wall or not. Still bitter. Can you tell?). Not having a good real estate agent can cost you thousands in mistakes you didn’t need to make. Don’t do it. Get a real estate agent.
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